Comment: Publisher: E C W PrDate of Publication: 2009Binding: hardcoverEdition: Condition: FineDescription: Stripmalling is both a semi-autobiographical first novel from Winnipeg-born author Jon Paul Fiorentino and something more complex and metafictional. The hero, Jonny, is a 31-year-old aspiring writer and instructor at a "mildly respectable university" in Montreal (Fiorentino teaches at Concordia). Jonny is going through a "pre-emptive mid-life crisis" that involves writing a novel titled Stripmalling, about the time he spent working at a suburban Winnipeg mall - pumping gas, stocking shelves, and dealing drugs out of the back of his Chevette. In addition to chasing its own tail, the book also takes itself apart, recasting the main characters in a graphic novel (illustrated by Evan Munday), the script and preliminary sketches for which are included in an appendix of "bonus materials." Jonny's mall story is interspersed with "mid-life crisis reports," which are themselves

Stripmalling is the story of one young man’s embarrassing and hilarious journey to literary awareness. Jonny lives and works in a strip mall in suburban Winnipeg. For some people, this would be an exciting and fulfilling life. But Jonny has a dream: he wants to be a writer. He has almost everything he needs to make this dream come true: a supportive girlfriend, an active imagination, and an abundance of subject matter. There is only one obstacle: his own relentless stupidity. Imagine Proust without all those annoying words and insights. Imagine a book so funny, so clever that even just touching it makes you a smarter, better person. Part journal, part comedy routine, and part graphic novel, Stripmalling is a unique experiment in genre and voice that is ambitious, accessible and laugh-out-loud funny. Parts of Stripmalling have appeared on CBC Radio One’s All in a Weekend and in THIS Magazine, filling Station, Word, Event, Matrix, sub-Terrain, and Opium.

Product Description

Quill & Quire

Stripmalling is both a semi-autobiographical first novel from Winnipeg-born author Jon Paul Fiorentino and something more complex and metafictional. The hero, Jonny, is a 31-year-old aspiring writer and instructor at a “mildly respectable university” in Montreal (Fiorentino teaches at Concordia). Jonny is going through a “pre-emptive mid-life crisis” that involves writing a novel titled Stripmalling, about the time he spent working at a suburban Winnipeg mall – pumping gas, stocking shelves, and dealing drugs out of the back of his Chevette. In addition to chasing its own tail, the book also takes itself apart, recasting the main characters in a graphic novel (illustrated by Evan Munday), the script and preliminary sketches for which are included in an appendix of “bonus materials.” Jonny’s mall story is interspersed with “mid-life crisis reports,” which are themselves corrected and reinterpreted by his ex in a series of “Dora reports” that undercut Jonny’s authority (“That obviously never happened,” one begins). Dora, in turn, has her eye on Jonny’s partner, an artist coincidentally named Evan Munday. . . This is all very knowing and postmodern, but handled with a light comic touch, which is set in deliberate opposition to “dead ‘serious’ prose fiction.” Fiorentino’s sensibility is pure Coupland: from the Gen Y slackers alienated from nature (a Manitoba winter is dimly evoked as passing “like a slow-moving ice-type thing”) to the Morrissey constantly playing in the background. The personal and the political bleed into each other, but both are tinged with the same sense of youthful apathy and indifference. For example, the mall is bought by a Wal-Mart clone and then shut down in the face of union organization, but everyone just moves on. Jonny is bisexual, but doesn’t seem to care very much either way. A collage-like experience, Stripmalling is a hybrid book forged out of multiple angles and perspectives. It is also a funny and clever experiment in tale-telling.

Review

Fiorentino is wickedly funny.” The Globe and Mail

"What Jon Paul Fiorentino is up to is sly and self-effacing, deeply real and hilarious. Stripmalling is an absolute bender." Emily Schultz, author, Joyland

"Both a semi-autobiographical first novel from Winnipeg-born author Jon Paul Fiorentino and something more complex and metafictional. . . . A collage-like experience, Stripmalling is a hybrid book forged out of multiple angles and perspectives. It is also a funny and clever experiment in tale-telling. Quill & Quire

Most helpful customer reviews

Fiorentino's "Stripmalling" is an amazing read, although the title was somewhat misleading; at no time in the novel does Jonny, the protagonist, strip. Apart from that, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about a confused young man who both consumes and sells drugs while dreaming of a writing career. Dora provides a stable force in his life, but he is too foolish to realize that and he leaves her. He struggles to be a good father, and he nearly bangs some hypocrite, middle-aged drug-dealing mom. Jonny accurately shows how drugs are bad, very, very bad. Prior to reading this book, I considered starting a cocaine habit, and thankfully, "Stripmalling" has shown me the light. Fiorentinto is a great writer, and I will definitely read his other works.

A hybrid book--not quite graphic, not enough novel. But really funny and dark and the two kinds of storytelling complemented each other quite well here. It wasn't strong on plot, mostly feckless, self-loathing characters. The Jonny character was hilarious and you're always skating on the thin ice the author deliberately sets up between what is autobiography and what is fiction. Both are funny and no decision is necessary. They both get thumbs up from me. I will definitely seek out some of his earlier work.

Stripmalling is the first novel by Jon Paul Fiorentino, and a very funny one it is.... Amid the hilarious scenes that make up Stripmalling - gas-station hot-boxing, desperate ploys for sex, moderate success in the writing world ... Fiorentino produces peaks of warmth and true sadness.-- Globe and Mail

Stripmalling is an entertaining, occasionally disorienting trip throughthe wires of Jonny, a presumably semi-fictional character working in and around a strip mall in suburban Winnipeg.... Outrageous, intriguing andquietly powerful, Stripmalling offers readers the curious and ultimatelyrewarding experience of stepping outside their own stories.-- Scene Magazine

Stripmalling is an author's memoir freed from the tyranny of facts. Jonny shares his personal issues with an off-the-wall candour.... From the top of Stripmalling, you see a keen mind at work under the quirky surface.-- Xtra

[Stripmalling has] a poignant tension between narrative and fragmentation,hopefulness and cynicism. . . . [Fiorentino has] become one of Montreal's --and Canada's -- most prolific and accomplished young writers.-- Hour

A collage-like experience, Stripmalling is a hybrid book forged out of multiple angles and perspectives. It is also a funny and clever experiment in tale-telling.Read more ›

Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)

Amazon.com:
1 review

Mangled, messed up funOct. 5 2010

By
STEFANO BOSCUTTI
- Published on Amazon.com

Format: Paperback

Fiorentino's "Stripmalling" is a lot of fun. Mangled, messed up fun that rolls and spills all over the place. But that's what makes it fun. Yes, it's very meta. But then what isn't these days. Loved the marked-up screenplay and the lame teen comedy freeze frame snapshots over the closing credits. Go on, immerse yourself.